Jana Devries' Blog

 A copywriter makes you money because he or she can increase your profits!  A copywriter does this by taking your sales message and relying in a way that catches the attention of your target audience.

Think of it this way…if you owned a car dealership, you wouldn’t want to hire just anyone to be on your sales team because you know that not everyone is going to be equally good at the job.  You don’t want to hire someone who will ignore your customers and sit behind the counter, texting their friends until their shift is over.  You want to hire the person who is a natural with people and has a passion for the job.

 In the same way, you could get just anyone to write your marketing materials but why would you?  It is, quite simply, a bad business decision to get a friend or relative to do all your copywriting for you so you can save money.

Your marketing materials are vital to the success of your business.  They are your business’ image…survival kit…pulse….  They are how you communicate with your customers and potential customers.  With so many other companies out their competing for buyers’ attention, you have a small window of opportunity to gain that attention. 

But it doesn’t just end there.  You have to keep the buyer’s attention long enough to demonstrate how your product or service will solve their problems and convince them to buy from you rather than from your competitor.  That is not an easy task for anyone, which is why it is best left in the hands of someone who is trained to do just that – a professional copywriter, passionate about their craft.

That’s my plug for copywriters.  I hope I’ve convinced you.  See my mainpage for all the reasons you should choose me for the job.

There have been some very befuddled looks on the faces of the people to whom I have explained that I am a copywriter. None of them seem to know what copywriting is. So I decided to conduct an informal Facebook poll to find out exactly what people think “copywriting” is. These are some of the responses I got:

“Rights to the copy!! It’s ownership of a design or idea.”

Cold.

“Copywriting sounds like the action of copying a writing of some sort, be it your own or somebody else’s.”

Colder.

“If you are referring to intellectual property rights, I would feel the need to have a week long seminar on the abuse of the system by the evil corporate world.”

The angry intellectual property rights activist is cold.

“Well, if you mean “copyrighting” I offer you the definition as given in the ” Britannica World Language Edition Of Funk & Wagnall’s New Practical Standard Dictionary”: “Cop’-y-right” (noun) “The exclusive legal right of authors, composers, playwrights, and artists to publish and dispose of their works for a limited time.”

Please play again.

Writing a commercial.

Getting warmer.

So what is copywriting?

“Copywriting”, in its most basic form, is writing with the intent to sell. Copywriting gains the attention of potential buyers by appealing directly to their wants and needs. All this is accomplished through very strategically-communicated words and concepts.

Copywriting is everywhere. You see copywriting on print ads, posters, internet banner ads, brochures, flyers, sales letters, press releases, product descriptions, business tag lines, radio ad scripts, commercial scripts, newsletters, direct mail advertisements delivered to your door…the list is virtually endless.

What copywriting is not

Copywriting is not coming up with a funny or clever idea…unless of course that idea will sell your product or service. Copywriting is not bragging about the features of your business. People won’t care about your business until they see clearly that it will be a benefit to them.

Copywriting is, essentially, professional advertising.